Caruthersville gets $500,000

CARUTHERSVILLE, Mo. -- Still picking up the pieces after being hit by an F3 tornado more than a year ago, Caruthersville will receive an additional half a million dollars in state aid for repairing its infrastructure.

Gov. Matt Blunt made the announcement Thursday. The money comes from the state's Community Block Development Program administered by the Department of Economic Development. State assistance to the area now has totaled more than $900,000 since the storm.

Caruthersville Mayor Diane Sayre said the money will go toward street and drainage repair work.

The city prioritized streets in the affected area that either received the greatest damage or are most traveled. "We're not anywhere close to being whole again, but this is a good step in right direction," Sayre said.

Sayre said most of the street damage was caused by heavy trucks and equipment during the cleanup effort. "These are not heavy industrial streets, and so now they have a lot of asphalt damage," she said.

The grant combined with a $200,000 local match will allow Caruthersville to repair 25 damaged blocks.

While upgrading the streets, Caruthersville plans to improve its drainage system. Many of the streets use only drainage ditches to capture excess water. The grant will allow the city to install curbs and gutters on five city blocks. Sayre said the project will be underway by late summer.

Jessica Robinson, Blunt's spokeswoman, said the $500,000 is the fourth injection of funding for Caruthersville since the tornado. The first was securing funding for a disaster recovery coordinator to oversee cleanup and aid work. The second was a grant to pay for debris removal and destruction of unsafe structures. The next step was to provide additional state funding for cleanup not covered by federal money. Those state funds totaled $402,000.

The latest grant may not make the town whole again, but it will help, Robinson said.

"A storm wiped out half of an entire community, so recovery is not a year in the making," she said.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245